Eyes smiling, the face of Esmeralda Herrera Monreal splashed across the theater screen as she posed and giggled in a red strapless dress for the home videocamera.

She looked young, vibrant and so alive – all of the things that you would expect of a 15-year-old with her future ahead of her.

Who could have imagined that this bright star would end up dead in a cotton field, clothes bloodied, body bloated and purple, and her face missing?

Sitting beside me at the Sunset 5 Laemmle Theaters in West Hollywood, Irma Monreal began sobbing as the images of her daughter’s slim frame flashed across the screen during last week’s premiere of “Border Echoes: The Truth Behind the Juárez Murders.”

It was the first time that Irma had seen the images since Esmeralda disappeared in 2001 and was found dead in a cotton field along with seven other young women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

As readers may recall, in 2004 my colleague Minerva Canto and I wrote an eight-part Register series about the mysterious string of killings and disappearances that have occurred in the border city for almost 15 years now.

It’s been three years since I last saw Irma Monreal in Ciudad Juárez, but I’ve constantly thought of her and all of the women we wrote about.

This is the type of story that becomes a part of you, something that Lorena Mendez-Quiroga, the Los Angeles-based journalist who made this documentary, understands all too well.

A KTTV/11 field producer when she discovered what was happening in Ciudad Juárez, Mendez-Quiroga spent the past eight years laboring to create “Border Echoes” and even mortgaged her home in Burbank to complete it.

“To me, whether it goes on to become successful or not, that is no longer an issue to me,” says Mendez-Quiroga. “I consider it a success because it’s about seeing your work finished after all these years.”

The documentary focuses on the investigative work of journalist Diana Washington Valdez, a reporter with the El Paso Times, and includes footage from some of the 40 mothers Mendez-Quiroga interviewed, including Monreal.

Monreal had been left with uncertainty as to whether the body she buried was actually her daughter’s, since the face was unidentifiable when it was discovered. DNA test results conducted by the Mexican government were inconclusive.

However, with funding from a $5 million U.S. State Department grant, this past year the Association of Argentine Forensic Experts in Argentina offered to test the DNA. For nine months, Monreal waited anxiously for the results.

“I was going crazy,” Irma told me in Spanish. “I would wake up at night laughing, crying, screaming, because it was something so horrible, the anguish of having to wait. Was it her body or not?”

Two months ago, Monreal finally received the answer to the question that had tortured her for years. The DNA tests confirmed the body she buried was indeed Esmeralda, finally laying to rest any doubts she’d had.

“It was like confronting a new set of emotions, because my hopes and illusions of my daughter returning ended,” says Monreal, 46. “But it also gave me peace that my daughter is not suffering, that nobody is harming her.”

It’s been five years since Esmeralda’s death, but Monreal’s family continues to feel the impact of the upheaval it has caused. Last month, The Associated Press reported the arrest of Edgar Alvarez Cruz, a Mexican national living in Colorado who was deported and charged with killing Mayra Reyes Solis.

Like Esmeralda Monreal, Reyes was one of the eight young women found in the cotton field in Ciudad Juárez. Authorities are investigating Alvarez and two other suspects in connection with those slayings, as well as those of eight other women, according to the AP report.

News of the arrest shook Monreal, especially after she heard that the suspects may have performed satanic rituals on the women. She locked herself in her room for four days.

“It was hard for me to imagine that my daughter could have been a victim of that,” says Monreal, who still has nightmares about her youngest daughter, Zulema, being kidnapped.

Zulema was only 11 when her older sister disappeared. Now, at 16, she’s the age when young girls start to go out on dates or to the movies with friends. Instead, Zulema stays at home, shuts herself in her room and has never spoken Esmeralda’s name since her death.

What will happen to this young girl from Juárez? To all the other women of Juárez?

One thing is for sure, the streets of Juárez are still not safe. Which is why mothers like Monreal continue to press the international community to pressure the Mexican government for answers.

For anyone who has forgotten, “Border Echoes” is a grim reminder that the women of Juárez must not be forgotten.

Contact the writer: For information about “Border Echoes,” go to www.borderechoes.com Cabrera’s opinions on local news appear Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact her at 714-796-3649 or ycabrera@ocregister.com

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